UAL Student Voices: Who Cares?

As the first generation to really understand climate change and the last generation to be able to do something about it students at UAL (and of course the world over) are in a unique historical position. Climate change will affect our future lives, it is already doing so, but, to paraphrase Naomi Klein: Has the future become just a luxury that we cannot afford?

The future will reflect what are doing now, and solutions and change in this present moment are crucial and critical. With consensus from the scientific community that climate change it is happening, that it is man made and that now is the time to do something about it, what will be the outcome of the COP21 talks in Paris that started last week? Are the students here at UAL worried about what the future holds? But with so many other things going on in life how does it rank in priorities for students at UAL in 2015?

With COP21 talks in Paris now underway, we wanted to find out what students from across UAL think about the challenges ahead, the possible solutions and the role of art and design in this huge debate. So a couple of weeks ago we sent videographer and BA Broadcast alumni Alix Hayhurst out and about around UAL sites to record a snapshot of what UAL students think about climate change. With so many other things going on, is climate change register on their radar of concerns? Something that students here think about a lot or rather something to consider in the future – whenever that comes?

Alix has produced four podcasts exploring the voices and opinions of the student body. Podcast #1: Who Cares? Here we hear a range of thoughts from climate change being an issue that is difficult to care for because it seems to happen in some other place to the need for celebrities to use their profile to draw in millenials, with another student highlighting the contradiction of the negativity around the subject as both a driver for change but also a barrier to engagement too – something we all have to grapple with.